ESTRO 2023 - Abstract Book

S194

Saturday 13 May

ESTRO 2023

In 2021, within a national educational project, so-called Entrustable Professional Activities for Palliative Care (PC) were formulated to improve basic knowledge, skills and attitudes for all future medical specialists in the Netherlands. We assessed to what extent current residents in radiation oncology comply with these PC EPAs and how to improve their education on PC. Materials and Methods In September 2021, all residents of the eight Dutch academic teaching hospitals received an electronic survey including five existing questionnaires about their knowledge, skills and attitudes on PC, and on their current education on specific PC topics. In a focus group, six residents discussed how to improve their PC education. Results Of the 85 residents, 57 responded (67%); 64% was female, 35% had not received any special PC education. Residents were mostly taught on the physical dimension (59%) and working interdisciplinary (41%). They were least taught on spiritual or ethical dimensions (both 9%) and care options outside the hospital (25%) (table 1). Most residents were satisfied with their communication skills (81%) and knowledge of working interdisciplinary (93%). They had least knowledge on care for the family (23%), bereavement (15%) and existential aspects (25%). Although only 9% had had any education about end-of-life- care issues, 69% felt comfortable communicating about such topics with patients. In the focus group, residents mentioned that end-of-live-care was rarely part of the daily work as radiation oncologist. They suggested education to be more in line with daily problems by discussing case-studies and ethical issues. An internship within a hospital’s Palliative Care Consultation Team might also contribute.

Conclusion The current palliative care education for residents in radiation oncology in the Netherlands lacks psychosocial, spiritual, and ethical topics. In addition, more case studies should be discussed. Hospitals Palliative Care Consultation Teams could provide internships to enlarge the knowledge and skills of residents in radiation oncology with a focus on 'training on the job'. OC-0257 Career advancement through mentoring; final evaluation of the ESTRO pilot mentoring program J. Heukelom 1 , J. Grau Eriksen 2 , A. Webster 3 , B. Tomasik 4 , D. Nevens 5 , J. Bertholet 6 , K. Røe Redalen 7 , L.J. Dubois 8 , P. Franco 9 , S. Perryck 10 , S. Petit 11 1 GROW - School for Oncology and Reproduction, Maastricht University Medical Centre+, Department of Radiation Oncology (Maastro), Maastricht, The Netherlands; 2 Aarhus University Hospital, Department of radiation oncology, Aarhus, Denmark; 3 University College London Hospital , Radiotherapy and Proton Beam Therapy, London, United Kingdom; 4 Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Gdansk, Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy, Gdansk, Poland; 5 Iridium Network, Wilrijk, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, Department of Radiation Oncology, Antwerp, Belgium; 6 Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and University of Bern, Division of Medical Radiation Physics and Department of Radiation Oncology, Bern, Switzerland; 7 Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Physics, Trondheim, Norway; 8 GROW - School for Oncology and Reproduction, Maastricht University, The M-Lab, Dept of Precision Medicine, Maastricht, The Netherlands; 9 University of Eastern Piedmont, Department of Translational Sciences (DIMET), Novara, Italy; 10 University Hospital Zurich, Department of radiation oncology, Zurich, Switzerland; 11 Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, Department of Radiotherapy, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Purpose or Objective The importance of mentorship for healthcare professionals is well recognized. However, many radiation oncology (RO) professionals in Europe do not have access to a structured mentoring program. Therefore, the yESTRO Committee initiated a pilot mentoring program in collaboration with the ESTRO Education Council (EDC). The goal of the project was to gain experience with mentorship within ESTRO, to evaluate the satisfaction among the involved mentors and mentees and to ascertain how to set up a permanent ESTRO mentoring program. Materials and Methods Eighteen mentors were recruited based on recommendations by and endorsement of volunteers from the ESTRO Standing Committees. An open call for mentees was launched. Fourteen mentees were selected based on independent scoring performed by three yESTRO members evaluating the applicants’ curriculum vitae and motivation letter. At the kickoff meeting during ESTRO 2021 in Madrid, two speed dating sessions (on-site and online) were held, consisting of four unstructured 10-minute conversations between mentees and possible mentors. Each mentee was assigned to four mentors